ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT ("SUSSEX CAROL")

English Carol
Arrangement: Richard Elliot
(With Themes by Camille Saint-Saëns)

The finale of Camille Saint-Saëns’s “Organ” Symphony No. 3, composed in 1886, juxtaposes the solo organ with the orchestra in a dazzling display of majestic fanfares and triumphant melodies. For the customary organ showpiece at this year’s Christmas concert, Principal Tabernacle Organist Richard Elliott borrowed the Saint-Saëns model and extended this same treatment to the tune of the “Sussex Carol” (also known as “On Christmas Night”). 

This folk melody was collected from the town of Monk’s Gate in Sussex by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and was first published in 1905. A joyful, festive song, it proclaims to the world the message of peace and goodwill. Here, spectacularly clothed in Saint-Saëns’s musical figures, forms, and motifs, the “Sussex Carol” is transformed into an exuberant celebration of the good news attending Christ’s birth.